The Watchman On The Wall

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Verse 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

This Is Where Globalism Leads

Pat Buchanan wrote this article.

Like a bolt of lightning, that call of
congratulations from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to President-elect Donald
Trump illuminated the Asian landscape.

We can see clearly now the profit and loss
statement from more than three decades of accommodating and appeasing China,
since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger made their historic journey in 1972.

What
are the gains and losses?

Soon
after Nixon announced the trip in July 1971, our World War II ally, the
Republic of China on Taiwan, was expelled from the UN, its permanent seat on
the Security Council given to the People's Republic of China's Chairman Mao, a
rival of Stalin's in mass murder.

In
1979, Jimmy Carter
recognized the regime in Beijing, cut ties to Taipei and terminated the
Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty of 1954. All over the world countries
followed our lead, shut down Taiwan's embassies, and expelled her diplomats.
Our former allies have since been treated as global pariahs.

During
the 1990s “New Century, Republicans”,
acting on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, voted
annually to grant Most Favored Nation trade status for China. They then voted
to make it permanent and escort China into the WTO.

What
did China get out of the new U.S. policy? Vast investment and $4 trillion in
trade surpluses at America's expense over 25 years.

From
the backward country mired in the madness of the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution in 1972, China grew by double-digits yearly to become the foremost manufacturing
nation on earth, and has used its immense earnings from trade to make itself a
military power to rival the United States.

China
now claims all the islands of the South China Sea, has begun converting reefs
into military bases, targeted hundreds of missiles on Taiwan, claimed the
Senkakus held by Japan, ordered U.S. warships out of the Taiwan Strait, brought
down a U.S. EP-3 on Hainan island in 2001, and then demanded and got from Secretary of State Colin
Powell an apology for violating Chinese airspace.

Beijing
has manipulated her currency, demanded transfers of U.S. technology, and stolen
much of what of U.S. did not cover.

For
decades, China has declared a goal of driving the United States out beyond the
second chain of islands off Asia, i.e., out of the Western Pacific and back to
Guam, Hawaii and the West Coast.

During
these same decades, some of us were asking insistently what we were getting in
return.

Thus
Trump's phone call seemed the right signal to Beijing — while we recognize one
China, we have millions of friends on Taiwan in whose future as a free people
we retain an interest.

China
bristled at Trump's first communication between U.S. and Taiwanese leaders
since 1979, with Beijing indicating that Trump's failure to understand the
Asian situation may explain the American's gaffe.

Sunday,
Vice President-elect Mike Pence assured us that nothing of significance should
be read into the 15-minute phone call of congratulations.

Trump, however, was less polite and reassuring,
giving Beijing the wet mitten across the face for its impertinence:

"Did
China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our
companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the
U.S. doesn't tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of
the South China Sea?"

Trump
then answered his own question, "I don't think so."

The phone call from Taiwan to Trump was no chance
happening. It had been planned for weeks. And people in Trump's inner circle
are looking to closer ties to Taiwan and a tougher policy toward Beijing.

This
suggests that Trump was aware there might be a sharp retort from Beijing, and
that his tweets dismissing Chinese protests and doubling down on the Taiwan
issue were both considered and deliberate.

Well,
the fat is in the fire now.

Across
Asia, every capital is waiting to see how Xi Jinping responds, for a matter of
face would seem to be involved.

On the
trade front, China is deeply vulnerable. U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods would
cause a sudden massive loss of income to factories in China and a stampede out
of the country to elsewhere in Asia by companies now producing in the Middle
Kingdom. (Watchman comment: China also has a massive need for water that
can be cut off by the U.S. and its allies.)

On the
other hand, without China using its economic leverage over North Korea, it is
unlikely any sanctions the U.S. and its allies can impose will persuade Kim
Jong Un to halt his nuclear weapons program.

China
can choke North Korea to death. But China can also step back and let Pyongyang
become a nuclear weapons state, though that could mean Seoul and Tokyo
following suit, which would be intolerable to Beijing.

Before
we go down this road, President-elect Trump and his foreign policy team ought
to think through just where it leads — and where it might end.